Bettin’ or Braggin: Losers on parade
With five weeks left in the season, all three of us still have a chance to take home the top spot. Or end up broke.
With five weeks left in the season, all three of us still have a chance to take home the top spot. Or end up broke.
Last week’s Bettin’ or Braggin’ grid is stained with red marks, not to mention a whole lot of big numbers. After a collective 6-12 week, SFBay’s team of pigskin prognosticators doesn’t have much to brag about.
But with five weeks left in the season, all three of us still have a chance to take home the top spot. Or end up broke.
At this stage of the pro football campaign, many teams can’t say the same thing. Not only have teams like Oakland and Philadelphia had awful seasons on the field, they’ve also been terrible against the spread. Oakland is 3-9 against the spread this season, with Philly at 2-9-1.
Most of the league’s top teams, predictably, fare well against the number. Tied with eight wins against the spread this year are Houston, Indianapolis and Seattle, but also Tampa Bay and St. Louis.
Having said that, we don’t pick the six games each week that will necessarily be the easiest to choose a winner. We try to mix it up and keep things challenging. Sometimes too much so.
Enjoy the games and pick wisely.
Fair warning: We’re not touts, sharks or bookies. We don’t splash action around the web or line up bets in back alleys. We’re just a few local writers picking games without much of a clue. So using these picks for your own gambling is probably a very bad idea.
Name | Bankroll | Last week |
Jesse | 13,700 | -4,100 |
Ali | 9,300 | -500 |
Chelena | 8,800 | -400 |
Game | Ali | Chelena | Jesse |
Miami at San Francisco (-10) |
SF 3000 |
MIA 100 |
SF 2500 |
Houston at New England (-3 1/2) |
NE 500 |
NE 100 |
HOU 1000 |
Tennessee at Indianapolis (-5 1/2) |
IND 1000 |
IND 100 |
IND 4000 |
Atlanta (-3 1/2) at Carolina |
ATL 1000 |
ATL 200 |
CAR 500 |
Dallas at Cincinnati (-3) |
DAL 500 |
CIN 100 |
CIN 500 |
Chicago (-3) at Minnesota |
CHI 500 |
CHI 100 |
MIN 200 |
To refresh anyone’s memory on how point spreads function, the team with the “minus points” is the favored team, and has the “point spread” deducted from their score at the end of the game. The final score adjusted by the point spread determines the winner of the bet.
If a team is favored by three points, they must win by more than three points to win a point spread bet.
Of course you can play along with Bettin’ or Braggin! What kind of pro football picking game would Bettin’ or Braggin’ be if you couldn’t play?
You can win prizes! (We can’t. All SFBay staff can win are bragging rights over each other. In other words, priceless.)
But first, some rules:
* – Actually, we will be picking two Thursday games, the Seattle-San Francisco game Oct. 26 and the Denver-Oakland game Dec. 6. On those weeks, the deadline for weekly picks will be Thursday at 5 p.m. See why we don’t like Thursday games? Too complicated.
Third-place: SFBay black fleece hoodie, high quality. Nice stuff. $50 value.
Second-place: Limited-edition, authentic SFBay Golden Gate FC soccer shirt, customized with your name. $120 value.
First place: A green Joe Montana Notre Dame Adidas jersey, “True School Authentics,” Size 56. Very high quality retro-authentic heavy mesh. Brand-new, never-worn condition. All tags attached. Very collectible. $250 value.
Jesse Garnier is the editor and founder of SFBay. A Mission District native, he also teaches journalism as associate professor at San Francisco State University.
Despite outshooting Colorado with 4,279 roaring fans surrounding them, the Bulls stumbled to a 3-1 loss Saturday night.